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SECTION I.

General Remarks. Character of Derbyshire Scenery. - Pic turesque Beauty.-Sea-coast Views. Fogs, Mists, and Clouds.

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THERE are but few individuals in this country, possessing the means, and the opportunities of travel, who have not, either from curiosity or some other motive, visited the Peak of Derbyshire. It has therefore become generally, though not intimately known, a circumstance which of consequence obviates the necessity of many observations on the prevailing character of the scenery it contains.

A more marked and obvious contrast in form and feature, is scarcely to be met with in any part of the kingdom, than the county of Derby presents. The more southern districts, though richly cultivated, are generally flat and monotonous in outline; to the picturesque traveller they are therefore comparatively of but little value: approaching its northern boundary it wears a more dignified aspect; here the hills gradually assuming a bolder, a wilder, and a more majestic appearance, swell into mountains, which, extending to the most elevated parts of the Peak, mingle their summits with the thin white clouds that often float around them.

That part of Derbyshire known by the name of the HIGH PEAK, is every where composed of a succession of hills, of a greater or lesser elevation, and intervening dales, which play into each other in various directions. Throughout the whole the same general character prevails. A thin mossy verdure, often intermingled with grey barren rock, adorns their sides; and sometimes the interference of what Mr. Farey has denominated "indestructible lime-stone Rubble," disfigures their steep acclivities. Yet even then a little brush-wood occasionally breaks in to enliven and diversify the otherwise sterile scene. These remarks particularly apply to the minor dales

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PICTURESQUE BEAUTY.

of Derbyshire. Those which form the channels of the principal rivers are of a more elevated description, and possess, in an eminent degree, that variety of object, form, and colour, which is essential to picturesque beauty, sometimes united with a magnitude of parts where grandeur and sublimity preside in solitary stillness.

Travellers accustomed to well wooded and highly cultivated scenes only, have frequently expressed a feeling bordering on disgust, at the bleak and barren appearance of the mountains in the Peak of Derbyshire; but to the man whose taste is unsophisticated by a fondness for artificial adornments, they possess superior interest, and impart more pleasing sensations. Remotely seen, they are often beautiful; many of their forms, even when near, are decidedly good; and in distance the features of rudeness, by which they are occasionally marked, are softened down into general and harmonious masses. The graceful and long-continued outline which they present, the breadth of light and shadow that spreads over their extended surfaces, and the delightful colouring with which they are sometimes invested, never fail to attract the attention of the picturesque traveller. But there are persons who, unfortunately for themselves, cannot easily be pleased with what they see; and who, like Sterne's Smelfun"travel from Dan to Beersheba, and cry, 'tis all gus, can

barren."

Nature is not only exceedingly arbitrary, but even capricious in the distribution of her treasures she does not generally arrange the materials that constitute her wildest scenes in strict conformity to the rules and principles of taste. The pictures she presents are not always harmoniously composed; but here, the sloping mountains, turreted with grey projecting rock, not only entertain the eye with romantic forms, but frequently present very pleasing combinations.

It may here be observed that picturesque beauty is not necessarily confined to any peculiar species of landscape: it belongs not exclusively either to a flat or a hilly country. The happy intervention of light and shadow may atone for the absence of variety of form, and impart this delightful quality to scenes and objects apparently at variance with those acknowledged principles, on which it is understood to depend: hence it may be found, not only amongst the dales of Derbyshire, but in the level counties of Leicester and Lincoln, where the sight, uninterrupted by hills, freely expatiates over an ex

SEA-COAST VIews, &c.

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tensive range of well-cultivated country. It is refreshing to the spirits, and gratifying to the eye, to wander over ground like this, where no objects intervene to disturb that calm sublimity of feeling, produced by contemplating an expanse of prospect terminating only with the limited powers of human vision; and where one prevailing tone of colour, broad and bold in the foreground, harmoniously unites an infinity of detail that gradually softens into the blue mists of distance, and imperceptibly melts into the horizon.

The gratification derived from beholding a landscape of this description, is nearly allied to the ineffable feeling awakened and cherished by a view of the ocean, under a clear sky, and unruffled by a breeze; when the mind, moving over a world of mighty waters, is sensibly impressed with the grandeur arising from a "long continuation of the same idea," and when contemplating immensity above, beneath, and around, it becomes expanded and sublimed to the loftiest pitch of human feeling.

Sea-coast scenery is indisputably more captivating than any other. The bold promontory shooting far into the deep, the broad expanded bay, the busy beach, the airy lighthouse, the towering cliff, and the shifting lights which play upon the waters, are objects of no common attraction to the lover of picturesque beauty.

Storms at sea, from the awful effect which they never fail to produce upon the mind, have great sublimity; and fogs, mists, and clouds, sometimes subserve the purposes of grandeur. Who that has travelled along the coast has not had his feelings powerfully excited by the phenomena attendant on a retiring fog? Who has not watched with the most lively interest, the progressive unfolding of the sea, and the gradual development of the ships upon its bosom? A vane or a topsail descried above, through the vapour that encompasses and renders undistinguishable all below, excites lively emotions of pleasure, mingled with intense curiosity; and we watch, with an absorbing anxiety, the vessel slowly emerging from its obscurity, and leaving behind the clouds that hung upon its way.

Inland landscape may likewise derive an accession of picturesque effect from the incidental intervention of mists and clouds, for nature has a thousand ways of enriching the many views she has spread before us. These shadowy nothings, these thin and evanescent visitants, not only serve to vary and diversify the scene, but in a mountainous country they are,

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occasionly, the source of considerable beauty. To trace the white clouds floating across the bosom of the hills of Derbyshire, their highest peak sometimes illumined with a bright sunny ray, and sometimes compassed around with the majesty of darkness, is at least an amusing, if not a sublime employment it calls into play the reveries of imagination, a faculty which is always more delighted with objects of its own creation, than with what it finds definitively formed and incapable of its arbitrary modifications.

Such are the appearances that often occur amongst the mountains of Derbyshire. Descending into the dales, especially those through which the Derwent, the Dove, and the Wye meander, the eye is enchanted with brilliant streams, well cultivated meadows, luxuriant foliage, steep heathy hills, and craggy rocks, which administer to the delight of the traveller, and alternately sooth or elevate his mind as he moves along.

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